A large problem in tech is lack of programmers and even more lack of female programmers.  We need to get more women involved and interested in tech but to do that we need role-models. Role-models of girls who code and women who code. Below is an Q/A by a great tech-role-model to girls, Ólína Helga. Ólína Helga is almost 13 and lives in Iceland.

What are your interests?

Dance, gymnastics and programming.

When did you start to code?

I started programming when I was 9 years old;

Why did you start to code?

I started to code because it sounded fun and I was my moms first “guinea pig”  to test if 6 and 9 year old kids could learn how to code;

What is coding ?

It’s a recipe for the computer to execute, written in a language that both men and computers understand (programming language).

Purpose = make games, videos and other cool stuff;

Is coding fun for girls?

I think programming is really fun and it’s not just for boys and geeks. I have been working as an assistant teacher at reKode Education (in Iceland = Skema), teaching other kids and teachers how to code. This experience has inspired me and I thought it was awesome to win a programming  contest  held by the FBI and Carnegie Mellon University. This coding adventure is also taking me and my family to the United States. We are moving there with our company, reKode Education, to teach more kids and teachers how to code.

The ambassador of the United States in Iceland, Luis E. Arreaga, handed Ólína Helga the award for winning the FBI programming contest.

@rakelsolva

Founder and CEO at @SkemaEducation / @reKodeEducation Computer Engineer, Psychology student, Positive Entrepreneur and Teaching Children How to Program

It’s things like this that make the whole campaign worthwhile #InspiringGirlsIntoTech

By Claire Vyvyan

For International Women’s Day on 8^th March, I went back to school with the Little Miss Geek campaign to speak to room full of year seven girls (11 and 12 year olds) about how I got into tech and why I still love it after 20+ years in the business. I was absolutely thrilled to be involved in the Little Miss Geek ICT takeover at St. Saviour’s and St. Olave’s all-girls school, as the campaign’s mission to inspire the next generation of young girls to become tech pioneers is exactly what we need more of in this world.

For a while now, the tech industry has not been a true reflection of the diverse world we live in. That’s why it’s crucial that we – as women, parents and the tech industry – are encouraging girls to consider careers in technology in whatever way we can. It’s astonishing that only 17% of women work in technology, when it affects our everyday lives and we’re so often the ones making the IT purchasing decisions in the household. I truly believe that by having more women involved, we can create technology that will only better serve the world in the future.

My father is actually responsible for my career in technology. He encouraged me (or forced as I saw it back then!) to get into maths and sciences in school and while I didn’t know it then, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. It opened the doors to technology for me, as it was largely maths driven, and when I learned to code on IBM punch cards I was hooked!   Ever since then I’ve worked at some of the largest technology companies in the world, including Microsoft, Compaq and now Dell. You never know where the technology industry is going to take you next; innovation is happening at a rapid pace and there’s no reason why young girls can’t become the next Mark Zuckerberg.

My technology career has allowed me to travel to many interesting places, but the best part about my job today is how the Information Technology my Dell team delivers today saves lives and impacts the world around us. We work in hospitals, with medical research, we help catch bad guys with our Digital Forensics solutions, we work in protecting citizens, Government and companies from threats in cyber space. As a woman, Dell is a fantastic place to work (rated as one of the Top 50 Employers for Women by The Times) and it continues to find new ways to support us, be it flexible working to be with our families or encouraging us to take on leadership roles. I’m one of three female General Managers running Dell in the UK, responsible for a 4000+ workforce, which is not that common amongst large companies such as ours.

I was lucky that I found a route into technology at an early age, but it’s not necessarily an area that girls consider because of the stereotypes associated with it. Year seven is the perfect time to start talking to young girls about their future and the possibilities they have to make a real impact on the world through technology before they start making decisions about A-Levels, university and ultimately their careers.

Speaking alongside some inspiring women who are doing their part every day to change the ratio of women vs. men in tech – Belindar Parmar, campaign Founder and CEO of Lady Geek, Olivia Solon, associate editor for Wired.co.uk, Laura Paterson, Lead consultant, ThoughtWorks and Siobhan Reddy, Studio Director, Media Molecule – it was clear that we were all here with a common goal and that the Little Miss Geek campaign was onto something special.

Walking around to see how the girls were getting on, you could see the enthusiasm on their faces, and the genuine interest in creating a game that could be played by their peers and getting their personalised characters to speak or move through coding.  It made me pretty proud to see them using our latest XPS 12 Convertible Ultrabook and XPS 13 Ultrabook to power their creations – and even made me want to pull up a chair and code again!

If you haven’t seen all the brilliant coverage and support from the industry and government, take a minute and watch this video.

It was a perfect way to spend my Friday afternoon, so thank you Belinda and the Little Miss Geek team for allowing me to be a part of this day and the campaign’s incredible journey.

Claire Vyvyan is Executive Director and General Manager, Large Institutions, Dell UK

Women entrepreneurs often know they’re entrepreneurs from the outset. I always knew I wanted to run my own business and after gaining an MBA in Entrepreneurship, I made my dream a reality, starting my first technology company straight out of business school. That drive to innovate and create inspired me to go onto build and sell several other businesses 212 Studios, and ventures through VH2 Energy Investments for example. It also urged me to try my hand in different industries such as broadcast and media with my decision to create and host CNBC‘s first original primetime series, “American Made,” reaching more than one million viewers around the globe and covering issues close to my heart.

I believe it’s our ability to look for opportunities and to collaborate which helps set women entrepreneurs apart. Women, in my opinion, have a unique talent for making connections from my experience that focus on “paying it forward”.  Women who have been successful, actively exploring ways to give back and help the women working to grow on their own paths. As an example, I was first introduced to the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) in 2010 when I attended the annual conference in Shanghai along with 75 other women. It wasn’t your typical women’s conference about balancing work and family, but offered really useful advice on key business issues, from scaling a business, to breaking into emerging markets, doing business with larger companies, and learning from other women in business.  Encouraging women entrepreneurs to share their experiences, DWEN enabled attendees to learn from each other’s challenges and brainstorm on how we could make our businesses more successful.

Women-owned businesses make up 30 percent of the UK workforce today, and contribute around £130 billion turnover every year. With that kind of contribution it’s hard to believe that women are still facing significant obstacles to owning a business and sitting at the director’s table. Regardless of the industry, investing in women entrepreneurs and business owners is key to economic recovery, growth and global sustainability.

But women are proving they can overcome initial obstacles to starting-up; while female tech entrepreneurs begin on average with just 12 percent of the funding capital enjoyed by their male counterparts, they have 12 percent higher revenues (MBA Online). And there’s never been a better time for women to start their own businesses, especially in the technology sector. The fact that technology companies with three or more female board directors are outperforming companies with no female board directors at all, is proof positive of what women can bring to this industry. (Gov.UK)

My key advice for women looking at taking that leap of faith in starting their own business, or to go beyond the “glass ceilings” at an established company, is as follows:

• Invest in a mentor. I have also only been able to get where I am because of the great mentors I’ve had in the past. Mentors provide invaluable knowledge, guiding your ideas to their full potential. Investing in a mentor can push your business from the idea at the beginning to the end result or product

• Join networking groups. Having the support from networks provides a perfect opportunity for women to interact with likeminded people, share ideas and gain inspiration from other women to succeed and grow their businesses. The Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network holds annual conferences that help to bring female business owners together to open up new business opportunities around the world. I am still in contact with the women I met there, and I thoroughly advise joining as many networking groups as possible
• Have unwavering belief in yourself and your business. As Dell Entrepreneur in Residence it is my job to encourage other entrepreneurs to know their passion. When they come across a challenge, I remind them that everyone has gone through some significant adversity that would stop most other people in their tracks. If it were easy, after all, everyone would do it. The key is to understand that if you really want to make something happen, you can

• Trust your gut.  Integrity is the most important thing you can have.  Follow your passion and be persistent, surround yourself with great people who all want to work on the idea together

  @ontheroadwithiv

If you ask most people what gaming means for them, they might talk to you about the perfect display resolution or their amazing sound system; how they have found the best ultrabook for gaming; look forward to playing the latest release; or are simply seeking to improve their high score. But some people choose to approach the subject from an entirely different angle – one which is slightly more socially aware.

Enter Anita Sarkeesian. An avid gamer, Sarkeesian was disappointed in the limited ways in which video games portray women and decided to raise awareness of this controversial issue. Through the micro-funding site Kickstarter, she requested backing for a video project that would uncover and analyze common female stereotypes used in video games.  And she did so quite successfully: Tropes vs. Women in Video Games achieved its set goal – and more – in a matter of days: almost 7000 people pledged a total of approximately $160 000 for the video series.

As a result, Sarkeesian was able to expand the original project and will now dive deeper into the issue. Initially planned as a series of five videos, Tropes vs. Women in Video Games will now comprise 12, to include episodes titled: “The Sexy Villainess”, “Unattractive Equals Evil” and the series’ opening video “Damsel in Distress” that can currently be viewedon YouTube.

“As a trope, the Damsel in Distress is a plot device in which a female character is placed in a perilous situation from which she cannot escape on her own and must then be rescued by a male character, usually providing a core incentive or motivation for the protagonist’s quest”, says the video. It goes on to stress how women are objectified this way; while the male protagonist is portrayed as the game’s proactive, courageous subject.

In exploring and critiquing a number of well-loved classic video games ­– like Zelda – Sarkeesian emphasizes the importance of thinking critically about the media we choose to consume  – while enjoy the games at the same time.

The project continues to face a lot of criticism, however – most of which seems to have become personal, anonymous attacks on Anita Sarkeesian herself.Facing sexual harassment and serious threats, she revealed how online bullies attempted to hack into her personal accounts, posted photoshopped pictures with violent and sexist content of her online, and even created a game that invites users to “Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian”.

Evidently, gaming culture can but profit from open-minded and civilized arguments about gender issues – in terms of games, and indeed, with regard to the community itself.  It will be interesting to see Sarkeesian’s next video and witness the online community’s reaction. The portrayal of women and girls in video gaming and the extent to which female gamers are encouraged or discouraged from questioning these norms, directly impacts on their sense of ease and acceptance within the gaming scene – a place that really should be ‘fun and games’ for all.

Ilinca Barsan is a freelance writer and student of Sociology and Politics at the University of Edinburgh who loves cooking, reading and running. She is passionate about all things tech, social media and pop culture and is fascinated by their impact on society’s views and expectations. 

When I graduated I got a job on an IT graduate scheme in retail, with only a Maths degree and a bit of HTML scripting behind me. I was promptly taught to code but I had no idea where I sat in the grand scheme of things as a ‘Trainee Programmer’. Now a Solutions Architect, my role continues to show how IT roles confuse people. A graduate recruit I was assessing recently asked me if I was involved in the maintenance of our physical office building. Initially it made me smile, but then I thought, ‘Why would he know what a Solutions Architect does?’ It made me think about how to explain the roles that exist within IT to people new to the field. So here goes…

Where do you need to be?

Building up a set of systems to support a company is not dissimilar to building a brand new town. There are always ‘basics’ you need, the equivalent of the supermarket, the petrol station, a school and houses. In retailing, for example, these would include ways to manage customer information, capture orders and create a product catalogue of items the company sells. As you would for a town, you bring in an architect to work out what is needed and in what order; In the case of IT, this is an Enterprise Architect. They work out what systems the company needs and in what order they need to be created.

How do you get there?

The work is broken down in to manageable chunks to form projects; Going back to the town analogy, it would be like splitting out the town centre as one project, the school as another, the residential areas another…you get the idea! Exactly as in any other industry, these different phases of work need a Project Manager to oversee everything. They will then bring in a group of people to work out what the users of the various systems need them to do. This role is typically known as Business Analyst and they are doing the IT equivalent of understanding what different facilities the town centre needs to have, such as a shopping centre with cash points, a food court (‘Requirements’) …

What do you actually want?

Working alongside the Business Analysts is where my role sits; Solutions Architects take the ‘requirements’ of the users and try and tie them up with the long-term view from the Enterprise Architects. They tackle more ‘technical issues’ such as making sure we build using the right materials, that none of the buildings will hinder work we want to do later and that there is the correct capacity for growth. Once this is done, it’s time to bring in the team to start building

Making the ‘solution’ real

The ‘build’ team consists of some of the better known members of the IT community: Coders. They make the various ‘buildings’ come to life, often from a design specifications produced by Designers (using the information from the Solutions Architects and Business Analysts). Both Designers and Coders are often (especially for anything public such as a website) supported by UX (User Experience) Designers who are the ‘Stylists’ of the IT world.

Ensuring everything works & people know how to use it

Once the building work is done, you’d expect everything is ready to go. But there are two more stages before we can let the ‘residents’ move in. One is to check everything is working as expected: that you can successfully get in to the car park, pay at the shops, get the right number of people in the lifts etc. The team that do this are the Testers – any ‘defects’ they find are sent back to the build team to fix and the Testers test again. The other role that appears here is that of the Trainers; They know how to use all of the equipment within the town and they skill-up the people who are going to use it in the future.

Keeping it running

As with a town though, a system isn’t done and dusted once it has passed testing and is in use. IT continually evolves: either enhancements need making to support a new way of life (a simple example of this is having to add all of the social media buttons on to websites) or problems are discovered and need fixing – the IT version of a boiler that needs replacing. In every IT division in any company, there is a team to keep everything ticking over all-day-every-day: Operations. For anything ‘big’, the same process used to build the town originally (using the Architects through to the Testers) kick-starts again and, since IT is every changing and evolving, everyone is always kept busy.

So…

This is just a simple attempt to show the diverse roles within IT. But what I hope it shows is that IT is so much more than just coding. The skills used within IT are broad and vary from being very focussed on working with a wide group of people through to very technical and logical roles. Some even combine the whole lot. So, if you’re sitting there wondering if IT is for you, I hope this will encourage you to give it a try!

Angela Watling is a Solutions Architect working at UK Retailer in London. To keep her ‘coding-appetite’ satisfied, she also tinkers with her own website from time-to-time, which provides an ideal opportunity for her to share her many views, via her blog.

   Angela Watling

I’m a mum of three (including one daughter), a ginormous geek and a tech-focused editor so I was delighted to write a guest post for Little Miss Geek. But the more I mulled over ‘how’ I encouraged my kids to be interested in tech, the more I realised that, well, I didn’t. I didn’t encourage them; they were there all by themselves.

Yes, their whole lives our house was strewn with desktops, consoles and mobiles then laptops, tablets, smartphones and handhelds, but all we did was light the sparks, they fanned the flames with their little arms from a very young age.

My youngest son, now 4, learned to read and write on an iPad. My daughter, now 11, produced beautiful stories aged seven using Storybird. My eldest son, 10, uses Xbox live, a headset and Minecraft to collaborate with his friends on amazing feats of construction that engages him in a way that his school work never has. All I did was not get in the way, encourage them to use common sense and stay aware of what they were doing.

It’s easy to be fearful as parents. From the moment those tiny little people come into your life, you feel like the world is out to get them. The wrong temperature milk, sleeping on their tummies, stranger danger, allergies! But when you settle into it a bit and the common sense takes over, everything shrinks back to size. And that’s true of technology. One of the greatest injustices we can do for our kids is to hold them back, through fear.

And it’s that ethos that I bring to my work. I’m editor-in-chief of Quib.ly, a Q&A community for parents and experts to talk about all the opportunities and challenges that raising kids in a connected world brings. Our children are growing up in a switched-on, networked, world. They blur the lines between online and offline, they expect answers at their finger tips, they don’t see geographical divides or roadblocks unless we put them there. It’s an amazing time to be a kid.

We had typewriters and diaries; they have tiny computers in the palm of their hands. And by the time I’m a Granny, who knows what technology will be doing for the lives of my grandchildren. It’s an exciting wave to help them ride; we just need to teach them to swim so they can look after themselves if they fall into the water. Just like our parents did.

Holly Seddon, Editor in Chief, Quib.ly

Simon Hughes, Deputy Leader of Liberal Democrats attended the event at St Saviour’s and St Olave’s School in his Southwark Constituency.

 By Laura Paterson, Lead Consultant at ThoughtWorks